Nigerian journalist Kunle Ajibade has lived a life described by
many
as
one of courage and calm. Mr. Ajibade was summarily sentenced to life in
prison
in 1995 by a tribunal acting under the authority of General Sani Abacha,
then the supreme military ruler of Nigeria, for an article published in
TheNews, a magazine he served as editor. Mr. Ajibade has
described a time
of
fear, arrests and exile of prominent writers and leaders of civil rights
organizations, and the deaths and the hanging of some in Nigeria--experiences
mirrored in other countries at other times. In response to an
international outcry, his term was reduced to 15 years, and when General
Abacha died in 1998, Mr. Ajibade was released and went on to write his
prison memoir, Jailed for Life: A Reporter's Prison Notes. The
book
won
the first Victor Nwankwo Book of the Year Award instituted by the
Nigerian Book Fair Trust. His second book, What a Country!, was
published in 2008, and he has continued his work as a journalist,
reporting and commenting on the ongoing struggles for democracy and
freedom around the world.

IU undergraduates are invited to join him for supper
and an informal conversation
about
his experiences as a journalist in Nigeria and about his views on recent
and
current events around the world. This event is co-sponsored by the
Hutton Honors College and the Wells Scholars Program.

SIGN-UP INFO: If you are interested in attending this
undergraduate
event, please check your schedule to make sure you are available for the
entire event and e-mail Anna Duquaine (aduquain@indiana.edu), indicating
you wish to sign up for the "Nigerian Journalist" program and include
your
name, e-mail address, year in school, and field(s) of study. Space is
limited so we will let you know by e-mail if a space was available when
you replied.

Mr. Ajibade will also be giving a public lecture on Wednesday,
April 18,
at 4:30 p.m. in the Center for Global Change (201 N. Indiana), on
"The Arab Spring and the Imperatives of Good Governance in Our
Flat World." This event is free and open to the public. The lecture is co-sponsored by the
Department of Comparative Literature, the African Studies Program, the
Cultural Studies Program, the Should of Journalism, the Wells Scholars
Program, and the
Center for
Global Change.